What each number means
- Words: runs of letters or digits. “Long-term” and “don’t” count as one word each.
- Characters: every character including spaces and line breaks (an emoji or flag counts as one), and the same without whitespace.
- Sentences: text ending in . ! or ?, or a line on its own, such as a heading or list item.
- Paragraphs: non-empty lines.
- Reading and speaking time: words ÷ the speed you pick, 238 words per minute by default. No text yet? Type a word count instead.
Reading and speaking speeds
The reading speeds come from Brysbaert (2019), a review of 190 studies of adults reading English: about 238 words per minute silently for non-fiction, 260 for fiction and 183 reading aloud. Presenting (140 wpm) and skimming (450 wpm) are our own round numbers, not research averages. If you know your pace, time yourself on one paragraph and type it in.
The “min read” label rounds up to whole minutes, with a minimum of one, the usual blog convention. Use the same speed on every post so the numbers compare. Images, code and tables aren’t timed, so for tutorials treat it as a floor. Writing a script for a five-minute demo? Pick reading aloud or presenting and enter the minutes to get a word budget.
How the Flesch reading ease score works
Rudolf Flesch published the formula in 1948. It scores text from roughly 0 to 100, where higher means easier:
206.835 − 1.015 × (words ÷ sentences) − 84.6 × (syllables ÷ words)Two things push the score down: long sentences and long words. That’s all it measures. 90 and up is very easy, 60–69 is standard (roughly plain English), below 30 is very difficult. We also show the Flesch–Kincaid grade level, a 1975 variant of the same inputs that maps to a US school grade.
Our syllable counter is a heuristic: it counts vowel groups and ignores a silent final “e”. It’s right for most everyday words and off by one on some, so the score is approximate, and it’s only meaningful for English.
Using it to edit
The score is a nudge, not a grade. The most useful part of this tool is the longest-sentences list. Any sentence of 25 words or more is highlighted. Plain-English style guides often suggest averaging 15–20 words per sentence; a sentence past 25 usually hides two ideas. Split it, and the score takes care of itself.
- Swap long words for short ones where the meaning doesn’t change: “use”, not “utilise”.
- Put one idea in each sentence, and the main point first.
- Leave necessary technical terms alone. Readers who need them expect them.
Length and SEO
There’s no ideal word count for ranking. Look at the pages that rank for your query: they show how much depth the searcher expects. Then check which phrases your draft leans on with the keyword density checker.